The Influence of Employee Empowerment as an Enabler of Knowledge Management on Sustainable Competitive Advantage Amongst Humanitarian Agencies in Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of Knowledge Management (KM) systems on Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) amongst Humanitarian Agencies-HAs through the use of Employee Empowerment as an enabler of knowledge management. It discusses different elements of employee empowerment and how they affect the agencies’ position in competition with other agencies. Humanitarian Agencies (HAs) are generally seen to be playing an increasingly important role in international development. While knowledge and its management have generally been credited with improving productivity and establishing more effective management in the developed world, this has not been the case with many other countries in Africa and Kenya in particular. The large divide between the economically advanced knowledge-based regions and the developing regions has meant that Kenya, like most other countries in Africa, has not as yet effectively integrated knowledge management into its humanitarian agencies. The study population was 42 humanitarian agencies with 10,487 employees in Kenya. Both the primary and secondary data were collected using questionnaires, interviews, and observation checklists. The questionnaires were administered by a drop and collect method to ensure high response rates. Employees were stratified into management and junior staff. Purposive sampling was then used to sample management staff in the agencies surveyed and simple random sampling techniques were used to sample employees at the junior level. Statistical tools such as cross-tabulation and frequency tables were used to analyze the data. This study adopted a descriptive research design. The study used resource-based theory of knowledge management for competitive advantage as its theoretical basis. The resource-based view and theory of the firm defines a strategic asset as one that is rare, valuable, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable. Knowledge is seen as one such strategic asset with the potential to be a source of competitive advantage for an organization. By adopting a resource-based theory of the firm with an extension of a knowledge-based perspective, this study aimed at developing and validating a conceptual model of the relationships between knowledge management enablers and their influence on competitive advantage amongst humanitarian agencies in Kenya. From the study, there is substantial evidence to show that knowledge management has a strong positive influence on sustainable competitive advantage. The results from the 42 agencies surveyed reconfirmed a general agreement found in the literature that employee empowerment makes a unique and significant contribution to the sustainable competitive advantage of humanitarian agencies. The study found out that employee empowerment imparts various skills and knowledge amongst employees for organizational performance and achievements which in turn enhances competitive advantage. Further, the study found out that empowerment is more than remedial; it prepares employees for collaboration and higher level performance, and sends a message to employees: we're spending money on you because this is important to the organization’s future. The study also noted that giving employees autonomous decision-making capabilities and acting as partners in the organization, all with an eye to the bottom-line implications is a driver to knowledge management. In the agencies surveyed, employee empowerment is used to value employees’ expertise and help them communicate their knowledge by creating ways to capture, organize and share knowledge. Employee empowerment enables involvement in the knowledge management framework, conceptualization, development and implementation of knowledge management systems leading to sustainable competitive advantage. Finally, recommendations were offered from practical ideas, drawn from experience, and intended for practitioners working with humanitarian agencies but are also based on the theory behind the knowledge management concept and are just as relevant for consideration by knowledge management and development theorists alike.